US Says Idle Gulf of Mexico Oil Wells Must Be Plugged

US Says Idle Gulf of Mexico Oil Wells Must Be Plugged

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The sun sets behind two under construction offshore oil platform rigs in Port Fourchon, Louisiana in June 2010. The US is set to require oil companies to plug 3,500 non-producing Gulf of Mexico oil wells in an effort to prevent future leaks, officials say.(AFP/File/Saul Loeb)

The US is set to require oil companies to plug 3,500 non-producing Gulf of Mexico oil wells in an effort to prevent future leaks, officials say.

The interior department will also require companies to dismantle 650 unused oil and gas platforms.

Some installations have sat idle for decades without inspection for leaks.

The order comes five months after an explosion at a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico caused one of the worst environmental disasters in US history.

In an order issued on Wednesday, the interior department said wells that had not been used in the past five years for exploration or oil production must be plugged and their pipelines and rig structures dismantled.

Hazards 'reduced'

"As infrastructure continues to age, the risk of damage increases," said Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, in a statement.

He said the new requirements, scheduled to take effect in October, would "substantially reduce such hazards".

Meanwhile, the senior US government official overseeing the BP oil spill response said the blown-out well was to be permanently sealed by Sunday.

Further

With the toxic Bibi circus in town - cue talk of "tentacles of terror" - find hope in the extraordinary Combatants For Peace, a joint effort by weary Israeli and Palestinian veterans of violence who've laid down their guns to fight for peace. Led by a former IDF soldier and Fatah militant who both lost daughters to the conflict's "unrightable wrongs," they insist on the need to "hear what is painful" and talk to your 'enemies': "Partners for peace always exist. You only have to look for them."